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A review by abij
A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki
PLEASE DON'T READ MY RAMBLE IF YOU DON'T WANT SPOILERS :)
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"On the way out of town, we passed some minimarts and coffee shops and an elementary school, but honestly, there wasn't much else: a fish-processing plant, a pachinko parlor, a gas station, a 7-eleven, an auto repair shop, a roadside shrine, a bunch of small fields. But then, as we drove, the buildings got farther and farther apart until finally I knew we were in the countryside because it was beautiful. It was like being in an anime movie, with our little bus chugging up and down, winding around the mountains and hugging the cliffs. Below, I could see the waves crashing up on these crazy rocks, and sometimes we would pass a small beach, like a sandy pocket tucked into the rock face." (p.167)
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So this book has been on my tbr pile for years, and I finally read it! I had no idea what to expect when I started reading it, and all I remembered about it was seeing the very mixed reviews about it when it was first shortlisted for the Booker prize. Overall, I was very glad that I went into reading this book with no pre-conceived thoughts about it.
The novel begins with a woman named Ruth finding a Hello Kitty lunchbox washed up on the beach near her home in British Columbia. In this lunchbox she finds a diary written by a Japanese teenage girl called Nao, and the book jumps between the two characters as we follow Ruth's reading of the diary.
For the first few pages and chapters I was definitely not sure about the book. I was worried that the writing of the teenage girl's diary would be too cringe - as I sometimes find this problem with adults writing what they think teenagers sound like - but as I read on, I did grow quite attached to Nao. After all, when I think back to what I was like as a sixteen year old, I was actually quite cringe at times.
I also read quite a few reviews in which people said that they loved Nao's narrative but either hated or got bored with the chapters that followed Ruth. I understand - since Nao's diaries were filled with a lot of drama (this poor child goes through TOO MUCH) - but I really do think the Ruth chapters added so much. She doesn't have too much drama herself, but gets very wrapped up in worrying about Nao from what she reads in her diaries. This to me, was the whole point of the novel. Ozeki's story is very much about human connection, even between strangers who live and exist very far away from each other. In my opinion, the narrative would be very lacking without both perspectives.
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The writing at times was very beautiful, and I found myself being sad when I had to put the book down to do other things - which is what you want from a reading experience!
So this book has been on my tbr pile for years, and I finally read it! I had no idea what to expect when I started reading it, and all I remembered about it was seeing the very mixed reviews about it when it was first shortlisted for the Booker prize. Overall, I was very glad that I went into reading this book with no pre-conceived thoughts about it.
The novel begins with a woman named Ruth finding a Hello Kitty lunchbox washed up on the beach near her home in British Columbia. In this lunchbox she finds a diary written by a Japanese teenage girl called Nao, and the book jumps between the two characters as we follow Ruth's reading of the diary.
For the first few pages and chapters I was definitely not sure about the book. I was worried that the writing of the teenage girl's diary would be too cringe - as I sometimes find this problem with adults writing what they think teenagers sound like - but as I read on, I did grow quite attached to Nao. After all, when I think back to what I was like as a sixteen year old, I was actually quite cringe at times.
I also read quite a few reviews in which people said that they loved Nao's narrative but either hated or got bored with the chapters that followed Ruth. I understand - since Nao's diaries were filled with a lot of drama (this poor child goes through TOO MUCH) - but I really do think the Ruth chapters added so much. She doesn't have too much drama herself, but gets very wrapped up in worrying about Nao from what she reads in her diaries. This to me, was the whole point of the novel. Ozeki's story is very much about human connection, even between strangers who live and exist very far away from each other. In my opinion, the narrative would be very lacking without both perspectives.
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The writing at times was very beautiful, and I found myself being sad when I had to put the book down to do other things - which is what you want from a reading experience!
"The sky does weep, and there is nothing false about pathetic fallacy." (p.267)
Honestly, I have been reading a few books recently that make me question giving a star rating at all, and this was one of them. I do think I very much enjoyed it, and I'm glad I read it, but sometimes I was slightly confused as to the actions of some of the characters. Ozeki covers a lot of topics in A Tale for the Time Being, including bullying (or ijime in Japan), and suicide. The scenes depicting bullying/ijime were very extreme, but I understand that bullying of this intensity probably does happen, especially after reading up on the subject of ijime online while I was reading the novel.
My biggest worry about the book is with the way it depicted suicide... Nao's father spends quite a bit of the narrative being very depressed and suicidal, and his family's reaction to it is to kind of pretend that it isn't happening. His suicide attempts get brushed over as drunken accidents, and his daughter spends a lot of time being angry at him for being 'selfish' and 'cowardly'. Even though this is difficult to read, I did not have much of a problem with it because I don't blame writers for depicting the emotions and reactions of people/characters realistically, even if those reactions are wrong. I will happily read about characters doing things that I morally and personally disagree with because I don't think that authors writing about people doing shitty things reflects on their own beliefs.
However, I do personally think I have an issue with how his depression and suicide is handled overall. The characters are all quite nasty to Haruki about his depression and suicide attempts, until they find out the almost 'honourable' reasons as to why he wants to die, and then soon after he kind of just... isn't depressed anymore. Uhhhhh idk. I'm really not sure how to feel about the handling of this subject and I don't think I will ever work out how I feel about it, but it did just leave me feeling slightly uncomfortable so I will just leave it at that for now....
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Overall, I think my favourite part of the novel was actually the depiction of Ruth's mother and her struggle with Alzheimer's. They all move to a small community in British Columbia, and Ruth believes that there is no point in holding a memorial service when her mother dies because no one was close enough to her to get anything out of it, and her mother was quite happy being alone. She discovers later in the book that actually members of the community were quite fond of her mother:
'"I don't think your mother was weird," she said. "I really liked her. A lot of people on the island liked her. She had friends here, even if she couldn't remember who they were. It's a shame you didn't at least have a small memorial. If not for her, for everyone else."
"I know, I know..."
"Did you know that Benoit visits her grave? He brings her little toys from the Free Store."' (p.401)
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So yeah.... I had slightly mixed feelings about the handling of certain topics in this book, but overall very much kept wanting to pick it up and keep reading. I think I will definitely pick up The Book of Form and Emptiness at least, which is Ruth Ozeki's most recent novel that won the women's prize for fiction.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Pedophilia, Rape, and Suicide